Bunker Heights is a genre-bending farce that delves into the complexities of a troubled city facing a catastrophic crisis. Blending elements of crime, horror, and dark comedy, the film offers a gripping narrative that follows the lives of its citizens as they navigate the looming threat that jeopardizes their very existence.
Written and directed by Drew Fortier under the production of Hannah Fierman (V/H/S, Dark Circles, Siren), the film boasts mesmerizing special effects crafted by Deryk Wehrley (Late Checkout, Crust), alongside captivating cinematography courtesy of Gordon Cameron (Her Name Was Christa). Principal photography for the film took place in secret with a budget of $30k and is currently in post production with no set release date.
As Bunker Heights enters its post-production phase, the suspense continues to build with anticipation, promising audiences an unforgettable cinematic experience. While the official release date remains undisclosed, the film’s blend of gripping storytelling and ensemble cast guarantees a viewing experience that will captivate audiences.
Watch the teaser trailer here:
Exclusive Bunker Heights t-shirts and signed posters are available at bunkerheights.com
“It’s the most fun I’ve had on a film set,” said Hannah Fierman, producer and actor in the film. “It was really a dream team as far as the cast and crew. The script is reminiscent of classics as well as having its own very distinct voice.”
Writer/director/actor Drew Fortier said, “I only ever find a purpose to do anything creative when things are organic and align properly; with that said, I have never been a part of something that has aligned more properly than Bunker Heights. The cast and crew of this thing are incredible and I am very proud of the fact that we created this film together from the ground up entirely in secret.”
Fortier continues, “The film itself is very ambitious in scope and filled with so many memorable characters and incredible performances that will no doubt stick with people for a long time; it’s pure unconditional entertainment. We have such a great ensemble cast in the film that truly shines; everybody is a star.”
Bunker Heights Stars:
Drew Fortier (Dwellers, Side Effects May Vary) Hannah Fierman (V/H/S, Siren, Dark Circles) Chaney Morrow (Wrong Turn, Haunt) Paul T. Taylor (Hellraiser: Judgement, Sin City) Floyd Ewing Jr. (The Dead Next Door, Robot Ninja) Douglas Esper (Dwellers, Trivial) James L. Edwards (Her Name Was Christa, Side Effects May Vary) Daniel John Kearney (Crust, Watchdog) L.C. Holt (You’re Next, V/H/S 2) Xander Goldman (Macabre Mountain, Massacre Academy) Christopher Robin Koch
The cast also includes various talent from the music world such as:
David Ellefson (ex Megadeth, The Lucid) Violent J (Insane Clown Posse) Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge, The Lucid) Lance Eric (ex Bang Tango, Color of Chaos) James Leg (Black Diamond Heavies) Bass Amp (First Jason)
Drew Fortier wrote the screenplay from a story co-written with Joe Placzkowski.
Autodidactic Studios, David Ellefson, Frank Ritter, and Xander Goldman executive produced the film.
Hailing from Pittsburgh, US, symphonic death metal project THY SHINING CURSE have released their new single “Melmoth” from the band’s debut album “Theurgia”, which is slated for release on February 16th via Swedish label ViciSolum Productions. The track is accompanied by a captivating music video, which you can watch here:
Rich in its intensity and harmonies, the band’s forthcoming album is a collection of seven musical rites, revolving around a common thematic axis; transgressing the physical world. “Theurgia” stands for “divine work” in Greek and was developed as a term by the Neoplatonists. It describes a series of magical acts that aim to connect the human soul to a hierarchy of superior beings, leading up to the supreme being or so-called, The One.
Thy Shining Curse is the solo musical project of a death metal initiate, Leonidas, with a primary focus on the practice of hierurgical artistry through symphonic methexis and hermetic imagery. Founded in 2021, the band is dedicated to the vision of its founder, aiming to create an immersive mystical experience by invoking the archetypical instincts of man via powerful symbolism, following the principles of the Pythagorean tradition, the Eleusinian mysteries, Neoplatonism and Western Esotericism. The depiction of its members is purposefully avoided. Instead, two mysterious figures act as the band’s visual representatives, Celeus and Celeucis. Their purpose is to complement the auditory experience with a subliminal initiation to the visual language of symbols, acting as modern-day hierophants.
“Theurgia” track listing:
Theurgia (Intro)
Abyssaoth
Aesahaettr
Acephale
Lenore
Heptacletus
Melmoth
“Theurgia” will be coming out on February 16 via ViciSolum Productions and is now available for pre-order at THIS LOCATION
Thy Shining Curse are: Leonidas – Composer/Music/Lyrics Gabe Pietrzak – Lead/Rhythm Guitars Cezar Moreira – Vocals
Welsh post-hardcore heavyweights CASEY have unveiled new single ‘Selah’, the final glimpse of their new album, How to Disappear, to be released 12th January via Hassle Records.
Vocalist Tom Weaver comments: “This song was actually named by Liam [Torrance, guitar]; it was a word that I wasn’t familiar with, but I think it fits the song perfectly. ‘Selah’ is “an expression occurring frequently in the Psalms, thought to be a liturgical or musical direction, probably a direction to raise the voice or perhaps an indication of a pause”. I’ve had a turbulent relationship with religion throughout most of my life. I’ve always comfortably considered myself an agnostic, but in moments of desperation I’ve definitely sought out reassurance from a being outside of myself. My overwhelming feeling towards religion is that at its best it provides a sense of belonging and community; and at its worst it serves to absolve accountability. In moments of crisis, I’ve often posed that question of “If you’re there, why are you doing this to me?. ‘Selah’ articulates that question with examples from my life. Near-death experiences or moments of pain that feel as though they shouldn’t happen beneath the benevolent gaze of something greater.“
Casey will be taking the album on a host of UK, European, Australian and North American tour dates in 2024:
North America tour w/ Holding Absence:
Jan 16 WA Seattle Neumos Jan 17 OR Portland Hawthorne Theatre Jan 19 CA Roseville Goldfield Trading Post Jan 20 CA Los Angeles The Echoplex Jan 21 CA Anaheim Chain Reaction Jan 23 AZ Mesa The Nile Jan 24 NM Albuquerque Launchpad Jan 26 CO Denver Marquis Theatre Jan 27 KS Lawrence The Granada Jan 28 TX Dallas Southside Music Hall Jan 30 TX San Antonio Rock Box Jan 31 TX Houston Rise Rooftop Feb 02 FL Tampa The Orpheum Feb 03 GA Atlanta The Masquerade Feb 04 TN Nashville Basement East Feb 06 OH Cleveland Mahall’s Feb 07 IL Chicago Bottom Lounge Feb 09 MI Detroit The Shelter Feb 10 ON Toronto Velvet Underground Feb 11 QC Montreal Le Studio TD Feb 13 MD Baltimore Soundstage Feb 14 NY New York Gramercy Theatre Feb 16 PA Philadelphia Foundry @ The Fillmore Feb 17 MA Worcester Palladium
UK and EU headline tour:
Mar 26 UK London Islington Academy Mar 28 DE Hamburg Sporthalle * Mar 30 DE Leipzig Messe * Mar 31 DE Oberhausen Turbinenhalle * Apr 02 NL Utrecht TivoliVredenburg Apr 03 BE Antwerp Trix Apr 05 CH Zürich X-Tra * Apr 06 DE München Zenith * Apr 07 AT Wien Arena * Apr 09 FR Paris Petit Bain Apr 11 UK Nottingham Rescue Rooms Apr 12 UK Bristol SWX Apr 13 UK Manchester Academy 2 Apr 14 UK Glasgow Garage
Australia w/ Dayseeker
July 7 AUS Perth Magnet House, July 9 AUS Adelaide Lion Arts Factory July 11 Brisbane Tivoli July 12 Sydney Liberty Hall July 13 Melbourne Forum
*Impericon Festival
Stream Casey‘s previous single ‘Puncture Wounds to Heaven’ here and watch ‘Bite Through My Tongue’ here.
The new album caps off a joyous return for the quintet, reuniting in 2023, with seven huge shows in the UK and Germany, and the limited release of their 7” Atone/Great Grief (Hassle Records).
Casey, at its core, was grounded in the notion that music is a labour of love. Without expectation of success, without desire to attain stardom, just a shared yearning to create music – and when this no longer rang true Casey stayed true to themselves, and stepped away.
In late 2018, when Casey announced they were bringing the band to a close, it felt like a premature demise. Their first two LPs – 2016 Love Is Not Enough and 2018’s Where I Go When I Am Sleeping – had firmly established the Welsh five-piece as one of the most exciting bands in Britain’s alternative scene.
Now, years later, the band have returned – bigger and better than ever before. Casey don’t just replicate the feelings that inspire them – they embody them.
Casey are: Tom Weaver Liam Torrance Toby Evans Adam Smith Max Nicolai
Death metal battalion VITRIOL is now unleashing its third new single, “Shame and Its Afterbirth,” along with a dual guitar and bass play-through clip! The track is taken from the band’s upcoming sophomore full-length, ‘Suffer & Become,’ which is due on January 26, 2024 via Century Media Records! The furious new song and video can be found at THIS LOCATION.
VITRIOL guitarist and vocalist Kyle Rasmussen comments, “‘Shame’ begins the story of ‘Suffer & Become’ with a celebration of our nature. It speaks to how modernity estranges one from the voiceless voice within them, and on the consequences of ignoring the call of their instincts. It also happens to be my favorite song (musically) that I’ve ever written. I set out to carve deep valleys and build tall mountains when writing this album, and I believe this song to be the best example of that achievement.”
Pre-orders are now live for ‘Suffer & Become’ HERE. The album will be available digitally as well as in Standard CD Jewelcase, Ltd. Deep Blood Red LP (All ex-US Retail), Orange Crush LP (All US Retail), and Red / Yellow / Black Transp. Splatter LP (Band Exclusive).
The artwork for ‘Suffer & Become’ was created by Dylan Humphries and can be found below along with the tracklist!
For Portland, Oregon’s VITRIOL, nothing comes easy. Nothing. The title of their second Century Media album, ‘Suffer & Become,’ says it all. “The title really sums it up,” says guitarist and vocalist Kyle Rasmussen. “I pushed things to a point while making this album where it almost became untenable. Things that were supposed to be done in weeks took months. It wasn’t easy, but I think it was suffering well spent.”
At the core of ‘Suffer & Become’ lies a profound sense of extremity and unease. This very essence defines Vitriol as the vanguard in death metal’s evolutionary path—a sonic landscape characterized by its profound darkness, density, and the infusion of nanotechnological precision interwoven with intense, seething emotions. Not easy listening in the slightest. Since forming in 2013, Rasmussen and longtime co-conspirator, bassist, and co-vocalist Adam Roethlisberger have worked with a single-minded vision: to push the genre to its breaking point and invent a new uncompromising paradigm in the process. VITRIOL is a masterclass in pain – and that’s just their jumping-off point.
Recounting VITRIOL’s initial journey into the outer fringes of extremity, Rasmussen is characteristically thoughtful. “I was starving for something that didn’t pull any punches,” says Kyle of VITRIOL’s caustic mission statement, which detonated into the realm of extreme metal with 2013’s ‘Antichrist’ demo. “Death metal was important to me because it speaks to an aggression, a frustration that I had when I was younger. It wasn’t just a sonic connection but an emotional connection, which made music almost a means to an end. What I saw happening in extreme metal at the time was almost a removal of emotion in favor of musicality, that fire, that piss and vinegar spirit. Basically, I wanted something that wanted me dead.”
With 2017’s ‘Pain Will Define Their Death’ EP, VITRIOL took its spot as one of the underground’s most uncompromising exponents, leading them to join forces with Century Media. The resultant album, 2019’s “To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice,” was nothing short of a crucial next step for the band and the genre itself. Decibel Magazine said, “Vitriol leave no doubt they are one of the best the genre has to offer, with shades of Nile, Hate Eternal, and Anaal Nathrakh frequently peeking through.” Hitting the road that year, at first in Europe with Nile and then in the US with Cattle Decapitation and Atheist, and then Vader before the onset of Covid, VITRIOL was quick to establish themselves as much of an uncompromising force onstage as they are on record.
“Doing ‘Black Seeds of Vengeance’ alongside Karl Sanders [of Nile] onstage in Europe on our very first tour was nothing short of a ‘pinch me’ moment,” Kyle recounts from VITRIOL’s early touring days. “More recently, we were touring with Morbid Angel, and Steve Tucker, who is my favorite Morbid Angel vocalist, came out of his dressing room in a VITRIOL t-shirt and exclaimed that we were one of his favorite new bands! That blew my mind as a fan, first and foremost – a total ‘Holy Fuck!’ moment.”
‘Suffer & Become’ is nothing short of a benchmark for VITRIOL (rounded out by guitarist Daniel Martinez and Matt Kilner). It’s as dense and blackened as anything to erupt from Rasmussen’s vision of sonic disorder. From the onset of the opening track, “Shame and Its Afterbirth,” there’s a new sense of openness, grandeur, and occasional beauty in VITRIOL’s aural arsenal. “I wanted to have an album that had a stark duality to it,” says Kyle. “Very high highs and very low lows. We’re very familiar with the lows but not so much with the triumphant highs. I wanted the album to have more of a sense of optimism to it, both lyrically and musically. I wanted the album to convey a sense of optimism that probably gets lost in the black maelstrom that is the first album.”
Produced by Rasmussen and mixed by Dave Otero (Archspire, Cattle Decapitation), ‘Suffer &
Become’ isn’t merely the sound of VITRIOL upping the ante in death metal’s musical arms race; it is also the sound of salvation for its driving force. “Living in the world of that first album was very difficult for me,” says Rasmussen. “It’s not a nice place. It was very intentionally imbalanced in the same way a horror film is imbalanced. I wanted a healthier world for me to live in, and I believe I achieved that.”
Not that the writing and recording of ‘Suffer & Become’ was anything short of soul-rending. Rasmussen labored over the creation of the album in the studio, on tour in hotel rooms, to the point of painstaking obsessiveness. Kyle is straightforward about the grueling record-making process and its personal impact. “The record feels a bit like a Jungian Dante’s Inferno,” he states. “Plumbing the circles of my personal, psychological, and spiritual hell and then purposely refocusing it so it’s not the unhinged, dark catharsis of the first album. This record is a lot more vulnerable.”
Songs like “Weaponized Loss” or “The Flowers of Sadism” are what Kyle describes as a “dark baptism” in comparison to the absolute darkness of “To Bathe…”. The sound of VITRIOL remains as joyless and dark as ever, but with a glimmer of hope. VITRIOL has taken its trauma-put-to-sound approach to the next level and discovered a new sense of beauty in the blackness. ‘Suffer & Become’ is death metal with a bloody, beating heart.
Line-Up: Kyle Rasmussen – Guitars and Vocals Adam Roethlisberger – Bass and Vocals Matt Kilner – Drums Daniel Martinez – Guitars
Producer // Mixing // Mastering: Dave Otero Bio: Mike Gitter
The new digital single and official video taken from MANTICORA’s upcoming record “Mycelium” is the title track of the album, and a grandiose adventure into the more melodic and soft-progressive side of the band. An extremely catchy tune and another fitting appetizer for what is one of the most awaited records of early 2024.
For the video premiering, MANTICORA teamed up with Metal Shock Finland, enjoy it below!
Thrash, prog, power, black, death + pure heavy metal and everything else, your metalheart desires, put into one album, is usually what Manticora is all about. The band, that started out in 1997 – nine albums ago – as a power metal outfit, has transformed and thereby developed their own unique style of heavy metal – a melting pot of everything you want to hear, as a genuine metal fan. Welcome to “Mycelium”
After their grandiose, critically acclaimed two-album concept from 2018/2020 plus a 334-page novel (written by the band’s singer Lars F. Larsen), which the albums were based on – the Danes have scaled down a bit and written another majestic concept album, but this time only spanning a 48-minute mark, in total.
“Mycelium”, the new opus, is less symphonic and with an angrier, raw approach, with aggressiveness as the main-focus. Manticora has created a DIY album, where the only outside influence has been the mastering (done by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios). Everything else is crafted by the band: concept, lyrics, music, production, artwork – you name it, Manticora provides.
High-octane metal, which is only recommended for the strong at heart.
“Mycelium” will be released on CD, LP (black vinyl, limited to 500) and digital formats via Mighty Music on January 26th, 2024.
Lineup: Kristian Larsen – guitars Lars F. Larsen – vocals Stefan Johansson – guitars Kasper Gram – bass
Finnish gothic glam-punksters TRASHCAN DANCE have released the new single Alien Loverboy from their fresh album Killing Moon.
The song is a smutty tale of a two headed alien loverboy who “joins a local band, and tours across the land”, breaking young girls hearts on his Harley ride to new adventures.
The band has already released the singles Polezhaevskaya Station (with Stealth Division), Go-go Dancer and Lil’ Dreamer (feat. Niki Rock) from the album.
The album was released on October 6th through the greece metal label Sleaszy Rider Records on vinyl and cd and all major digital platforms.
The Alien Loverboys single has gained a lot of great attention in music media in the USa and Europe and it represents the faster and groovier side of the parent album. It´s also a kick ass live track!
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 